The battle for WRC2 honours at this month’s Safari Rally Kenya (28 – 31 March) will be the most intense since the Naivasha-based event’s return to the FIA World Rally Championship.

Rally Sweden winner Oliver Solberg will start the African classic as favourite. The 22-year-old Swede has finished in the top 10 overall in Kenya for the last two seasons (driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in 2022), but this will be his first time chasing points for the WRC2 crown.

Solberg runs his usual Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for what will be his fourth Safari start (he retired a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC from the 2021 event).

Fellow Fabia driver Gus Greensmith starts his 2024 campaign at the longest rally of the season so far (the Safari delivers 355 competitive kilometres across 19 stages). While the Englishman skipped last year’s event, he finished an impressive fourth – his best ever WRC finish – on the 2021 fixture aboard a Ford Fiesta WRC.

Nicolas Ciamin will be aiming to better the fourth place he scored on the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo. The Hyundai i20 N Rally2 driver is making his Safari debut this time around.

Winner of the WRC2 category for the last two years, Kajto Kajetanowicz is another to make his maiden 2024 appearance on the March 28-31 rally. The Polish star understands better than anybody else in the field what it takes to win arguably the season’s toughest event. Charles Munster (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), Diego Domínguez Jr (Citroën C3 Rally2) and Daniel Chwist (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) are among the other leading entries, along with local hero Carl Tundo in a Ford Fiesta R5. The entry list for the third round of the championship includes 14 RC2 cars.

Meanwhile, if it’s fast Tarmac, beautiful sunshine, and a stunning island vista you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the FIA World Rally Championship, Gran Canaria.

Spain’s return to the WRC was confirmed on Monday, and takes the series to another new and exciting venue.

New? Not so much. Certainly not if, like us, you’ve been an avid fan of the European Rally Championship, where Rally Islas Canarias has been a staple since 2016. And, let’s not forget, rallying has been part of a furniture on the beautiful Spanish island since 1977.

Spain itself has been part of the world championship since 1991, when an event was first introduced to Catalunya, partly to reflect the fact that the country had a world champion in Carlos Sainz, but also, because the sport has always enjoyed an enormous following in that part of the world.

And whether we’re on an island – or islands, as it will be in 2026 – or on the mainland coast, it really doesn’t matter. The warm welcome, the atmosphere, the passion and the emotion will be exactly the same. It’s only been two years since we were last in Spain, but we’ve certainly missed the flavour and the fever of the place.

Las Palmas and Gran Canaria will be fantastic hosts next year, but definitely one of the most interesting prospects is the opportunity for some WRC island hopping around the other Canary Islands to celebrate the 50th running of the rally in 2026.

There’s plenty awaiting the WRC, plenty to keep the crews interested with some of the fastest and most technical as stages around. Get ready for 2025, it’s going to be a good one.